The Personal Address Book (PAB), which contains the address book of contacts. These files have the extension .pab.

The Personal Storage Table (PST), which contains items like e-mails, appointments, tasks, notes, etc. and is used as current and archived mailbox files. These files have the extension .pst. The PST format is also referred to as the Personal Folder File (PFF) format.

The Offline Storage Table (OST), which contains items like e-mails, appointments, tasks, notes, etc. and is used as off line mailbox files in conjunction with MicrosoftExchange. These files have the extension .ost. The OST format is also referred to as the Offline Folder File (OFF) format.

The underlying file format of these files is the same of which the actual name is unknown but has been dubbed the Personal Folder File (PFF) format, because of its most common usage.

Contents

Encryption

The PFF format allows the file to be encrypted. Two types of encryptions are currently known these are referred to as compressible and high encryption.
The compressible encryption is a basic substitution cypher and the high encryption is a little more complex substitution cypher.
From a cryptographic point of view this is more a way of obfuscation than a means to protect confidentiality.